CES: Dell previews 5-inch tablet concept akin to large iPod touch

Piggybacking on industry-wide excitement over an expected Apple tablet unveiling later this month, rival Dell used a portion of its presentation at CES on Thursday to flaunt its own tiny tablet concept that's been brewing in its labs.

Executives for the Round Rock, Texas-based company briefly flashed the 5-inch device — which is reminiscent of larger Apple iPhone or iPod touch — during the early morning event while referring to it as a "slate." They said it was just one of several tiny tablet devices they've been cooking up in their R&D department, each of which has a different screen size.

Outside of confirming that the prototype shown Thursday was running Google's Android operating system, few if any other details we provided. However, Engadget and Gizmodo were privy to 90 second-long snap-shot sessions that appeared to reveal a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash mounted on the rear of the device, a built in stand, and possibly a SIM slot that would allow the device to dual as mobile handset.

A brief demonstration video was also run during Dell's presentation in which the tablet device was shown with a large touch-screen keyboard, multi-player gaming functionality, and media sharing capabilities. Although the unit on hand was dressed in a red enclosure, press photos (below) that would later surface portray the device clad in all black.

As to how Dell plans to market the device, there's some unconfirmed speculation that the model being shown off at CES may have previously shown up on company documents under the "Streak" moniker. For their part, Dell staffers are remaining mum and refusing to let members of the media handle the device.

"[L]ast night's keynote address by Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer came and went without a mention of a Microsoft tablet. Ballmer had a line up of products that included a tablet PC from HP. He spent less than a minute showing it off.

"This morning, I interviewed Ballmer and asked him about the market for tablet/slate computers. He made the excitement sound like empty chatter. He claimed to believe that there isn't a sizeable market for the tablet.

" 'They're interesting,' he said. 'But it's not like they're big numbers compared to the total number of smart devices in the world.' "

It sort of makes me hope Apple doesn't come out with a tablet/slate. I could see good ol' Steve creating a few fabricated items to purposely leak to DELL, HP, or MS. They go and try to duplicate it and Apple comes out with the iFridge to beat everybody to the punch on refrigerator-computer integration.

The last thing a company like Dell (or Microsoft, for that matter) should be wasting it's time with is talking about CONCEPT products.

When you've got folks like Apple, Google (via Android) and Amazon (Kindle) shipping REAL products that tip the needle, concept products just feed self-delusion that you are innovating, when in fact, what you are really doing is an exercise in puffery

Besides, the consumer is wise to the practice anyway, seeing how year after year, the auto industry comes out with concept cars that pretty much never translate into real cars. How'd that work out for GM?

And yet another attempt to out-Apple Apple, out-slate the iSlate, and generally try to show their shareholders that they aren't asleep at the helm...

If it weren't for all the talk of an Apple product none of this would even exist!

They really are so sad, for while they have an idea of how it might look, they have not a clue about how users will interface with it. They have to wait until they see the real thing from Apple before they get their own ideas.

It can't just be about form factor, it has to also be about interaction... until someone gets both correct, these devices will fail.

Apple hit the nail on the head with the iPhone. It didn't offer anything new in hardware or even features. What it did offer was a unique way to interact with the device that was intuitive, fluid and fun and it accomplished it using extremely limited hardware that fit on your pocket.

Personally, I think that's testament to just how much they've optimized and refined OS X over the years. They were able to get that OS onto this small device and not only be extremely graphical in nature, but also one of the most animated user interfaces ever and get it to run smoothly.

I can't wait to see what their take will be on these "slate" computers, if they even have one. However, Steve Jobs has already been quoted saying, that all the rumors are way off,so it should be very interesting to see what he pulls out of his hat.